Students Give Local Kids a Halloween Treat

October 31, 2012 —
Robert Smith (L'13) has spent more than two years at Georgetown Law filling his brain with legal knowledge. But for Georgetown Law's annual Halloween Fest on October 26 - hosted by the Office of Dean of Students, Residence Life and the Gewirz Resident Fellows - he cheerfully surrendered … his head.

Smith played the role of a headless piano player in the “Haunted House,” Gewirz Student Center's dark labyrinth of fake cobwebs, plastic rats, tombstones and a bucket of squishy eyeballs (also fake). It was all designed to delight 40 young visitors ages 7 to 12 from the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation's after care program.

“We're continuing the tradition; it's been a big success,” says Smith, who pointed out this year's new feature, a mock cemetery.

First-year student Devin Ringger (L'16) played a mad scientist, concocting something from plastic body parts, fake fire and what he called “heart of bat.”

“The law just wasn't evil enough,” joked Ringger, who plans to study science and tech law. “I actually want to stop people from becoming mad scientists.”

Sharmista Das (L'14) helped supervise the food, games and trick-or-treating on the upper floors of Gewirz, while Kyle George (L'14) helped get the kids to the Law Center. “It's probably one of the better ways [the Gewirz fellows] give back to the community,” George said.

Assistant Director of Residence Life Amy Cavanaugh said approximately 30 students volunteered, including Joongwon Park (L'14), who lent his talents as a professional magician again this year. “[We're giving the kids] the opportunity to celebrate Halloween, because we don't know to what extent they're going to … have the opportunity to trick or treat,” Cavanaugh said.

Erika Maskal (L'15), stationed outside the Haunted House, said that since she didn't plan to do much in the way of celebrating on Halloween, volunteering “seemed like a fun thing to do.”

So was she planning on doing something really scary - like torts or contracts? “I'm going to start outlining for exams,” Maskal laughed. “Yeah, that's scary.”